Christmas Newsletter 2006

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Once again, the festive season is upon us, I don't know about you, but the older I get the quicker it seems to arrive every year; more than ever this year time appears to have flown. Anyway, we hope that the festive season brings you all the things you want and in addition we would wish you all Health, Happiness and Prosperity over Christmas and in the coming year.

A short message from Loraine for you at Christmas

Merry Christmas (1.2 MB)

• The video message was made using a relatively cheap digital video camera which you can buy for around £70.00. We didn't bother editing it just to show you how easy it was, but just think how you could get your message across about products and services. You too can send video messages through the Cumbria Business Portal's Site Editor Software on your website 
• Show demonstrations of your work 
• Explain processes 
• Tell pepole of your services 

Success Stories

News from Decoflora

Geoff at Decoflora, http://www.silkflowersdecoflora.co.uk - tells us that he has also set up a shop with eBay and this is bringing in loads more traffic to their main website for sales. Both Geoff and Pat are really getting to grips with the Internet and chat to us regularly about how to market their site effectively.

News from Jayne at Vanilla

Jayne at Vanilla in Whitehaven - http://www.corsets-lingerie.co.uk - is storming ahead with her on line presence, and it's because she puts the time in to market the site and is making weekly changes (albeit small changes) to the site which keeps the search engines coming back to review and rate her presence on the net. Her website is certainly a welcome diversion from the stresses of life for the male visitor. Well done Jayne.

News from Sandie at Cumbrian Way

Sandie at Cumbrian Way specialises in produce and products which have been made in Cumbria http://www.cumbrianway.co.uk has a superb range of goods made in Cumbria and is a dab hand herself at producing some excellent delicacies to delight the sense and taste buds. From their shop in Ulverston, they produce some great hampers for gifts – well work a look!

Major Successes are down to Portal Hosting and Good advice on Internet Marketing, says Laura

Laura Blacktop runs LB Accounting with her husband Andy and have been with our hosting for over a year now. Both Laura and Andy love the content management system and have praised our advice on content and how to market their website.
 
Laura tells us that she has won a number of new accounts since going live with LB Accounting and in October she was asked to visit a large company in the Dales to discuss their accountany needs.
 
"Without being part of the Cumbria Business Portal and able to tap into the expertise available to members through them we would never have been in with a shout for a meeting let alone a contract with a company of this size" Says Laura.

It's been well worth it!

"Having a website is only part of the equation. Once you have developed your content you have to market it and we have followed Loraine and David's advice to the letter".
 
"Yes, we have spent on marketing our website but much the same as we would have spent on newspaper adverts - instead of using the newspapers we decided to market the busines on the Interent and the returns have been much better and bigger.
 
So much so that we recommend Artemis Media and its Cumbria Business Portal to all our clients who want to have an effective website."

Newsletters and Articles

There is no better way of raising your profile than sending Newsletters reqularly to existing clients and to potential clients. Make sure first that you do not fall fowl of the spamming legislation. A copy of our interpretation of it is available here with the link.
 
We all get so much spam that up to 90% of web traffic is totally and utterly unwanted by the recipient. Make sure you are using a good anti-virus and anti spam programme. If you have the latest editions of Microsoft Outlook the you will find some useful anti-spam utilities there, you can also sucscribe to software by Norton, McAfee or our own preference AVG, but not the free version.
 
In today's market place you need a good antivirus and antispam programme so make sure you pay for it, the free aplications are OK, but only OK. Make sure you are up to date with virus and firewall protection. Not being so is like leaving your front door unlocked and open when you go out for the evening. It's an invitation to nick whatever you value, and we value our data on our computers.
 

What Security do we recommend?

Firstly let us say that our secure servers are well protected so you have nothing to worry about on that score. However, your own machines be they laptop or PC's will need an antivirus and antispam system that works and is updateable regularly. For those of you who use our email systems as well as our hosting there is an antispam and antivirus facility with them which cost only £20.00 per annum (net Vat) to add on to your free email account which comes with our hosting.
 
So what do we Use?
 
We now find Norton and McAfee to invasive and all consuming when coupled with an email system like Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. So we have opted for applications from Grisoft, you may know them as AVG. It is less invasive and we find that we can work while it is running its various scans. With Norton and McAfee that has not been the case.
 
A good antivirus and anti spam application from Grisoft is not expensive, but at the end of the day it is down to individual preferences, some use Norton or others because it came with the machine when they bought it - A Firewall, antispam and antivirus from AVG is well worth the cost and essential if you are going on line.
 
We also use a couple of SpyWare or Malware applications and run regular checks with them. They tend to trap anything that AVG might miss.
 
They are:

Spybot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft - Adaware
 
Both are free for personal use and give your drives a good clean up picking up all kinds of intrusive pieces of spyware that you didn't know you had on your machine.
 
Lavasoft
Spybot
 
Make sure you understand how to use them before you run and start deleting stuff though. Each comes with a manual.
 
Finally, we can't take any responsibility for how you use the applications we have highlighted here, so don't come running to us if you delete something you shouldn't have if you try them out. Take Back-ups first of all your important stuff.

Do you have a Christmas Review?

The break for many small business owners between Christmas and New Year is always welcome. However, if youare able to take a break make sure you put a little time aside for reviewing the last year and working out where you can improve, diversify, increase profits, decrease costs etc. That bit of time could save you £££'s in the coming year.

Christmas Hours

From 14:00 hurs on Friday 22nd December we will close our telephone support line until 9am on Friday 5th January 07.
 
During the Christmas break we will be checking our systems (even on Christams Day) and email's so if you have any problems send an email or fill in a support request by using the software system.
 
Whilst we will be back at our desks on 3rd January we will be carrying out routine maintenance on systems and machines ready for the New Year Trading.
 
Once again may we wish you all a very Merry and Happy Christmas and thank you for your support over the last year. We hoe that the new year will bring you everything you desire, including good health, wealth and happiness in abundance.

Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year to you all!